http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/monarch.php

The season is just beginning for me. Monarchs are beginning to fly in and one today was especially stubborn. My milkweed plants can’t be more than 3″ tall, and she was depositing a gazillion eggs on them. She’s nuts.  They’ll be way too easy to spot and eat. And there’s no way I can bring them in and save them either. What would I feed them? No way will there be en0ugh.

Anyhoo, my yard is beginning to be my favorite place again, thanks to another flying insect. Sphinx moth! Man oh man, do I fall in love every time I see them. Here’s me twitterpated. She let me get within 8″ at one point. I could hear the wings beating like paper pages flipping. My husband’s camera too a pic at 2000/sec and the wings were still blurry. Amazing.

Anyhoo, I am getting more disciplined with myself like I always do this time of year (must be doing all those taxes that awakens my anal side of brain), so I intend to get some new work out for everyone to see and some pics up of my other huge project. My garden! This year is going to be crazytown. We’re hacking away at our sod, making way for an insane amount of flowers and fruit. Love. So just know, any orders you send my way are going to a good cause: my butterflies in my own yard and the flowers they love to drink from.

Gingerbread houses, or more accurately lazy mom graham cracker houses. I wanted to post my house here so it might show up in a search some day for some future mom looking for those great tips. I found some good ones online, but we always can use more, right?

How to get rid of all leftover Halloween and parade candy before the New Year, aka the Gingerbread House.

I got the upside down ice cream cone idea online, but the Tootsie Roll fence was all mine! Oh man, did we get slammed with Tootsie Rolls this year.

I did make a Royal Icing frosting, but also had a few cans of store bought cake frosting. It worked pretty well except it takes much longer to harden up. And my stuff wasn’t as white as Royal Icing. My 5 years olds loved piping the frosting onto their houses. Moms, if you are considering doing this, all I can say is they worked on their houses for FIVE HOURS. That, my friends, is a big deal in Momland. Totally worth the mess, chaos, and expense. And we ate none of it once it hit the houses. They nibbled while building and then eventually we threw it all the extra away. My hips have thanked me threefold.

Lemme see, other tips.

Translucent candies at the rooftop look stunning in the sun, like stained glass.

Jelly beans with speckles make adorable stones.

Patterns are the key to creating cohesion out of chaos.

Seth and Sean's creations. It's true beauty is seen at about 3 inches away, where their faces were.

And now for the custom. I had so much fun working with precious metal clay, PMC, again. I love having control over the form of the bail instead of having only mass produced choices.

And finally, a record of my mad mom skilz, aka, I’m nuts. I give you the Turkey Fruit Gobbler (idea from Family Fun):

The caterpillars are fat and hungry. One has already hatched successfully.

They made me make a noodle house.

There was a Monarch flying by my milkweed today-I think this is going to be the year I harvest the eggs and hatch them in captivity. I had a wonderful customer tell me her foolproof method. When I find it, I will post it here.

On to potato salad. I know people who a good bloggers take a pic of their food. I am not a good blogger. I have s*&^ to do. But this so good-my blue heirloom potatoes were ready for harvest and the green beans have finally arrived.

Blue Cheese Potato Salad

-bunch of cooked then cooled cubed potatoes, salted
-maybe a 1/3 c olive oil give or take
-2 TBSP (?) of red wine vinegar-the best brand is Mantova
You can see I’m not much for measuring…
-a squirt of yellow mustard
Whisk ingredients with a fork. It’s essentially just a vinagrette. Pour over potatoes. Add a bunch of bite sized green beans and about 1/4-1/3 c crumbled blue cheese, preferably something with roquefortii enzymes. I love Mindoro brand=Bliss. Stir and serve. Oh, scallions are a nice touch, but one can really overdo them, so hold back.

When I started making chrysalis, 24k gold was $400.00/oz. Now it’s over $1500.00 and climbing. I can’t even use a less expensive 22k. Only the cleanest/highest quality will bond with the glass. It’s really something.
Its still cool with me in terms of making chrysalis. I mean, I still love making them and people still love having them. Unfortunately, I’ve had to completely stop my wholesale end of things. When means less people will find and be able to get my pieces. And I no longer get to interact with some really great clients.
Well, what can we do? Wait for the bubble to pop, I suppose. And hope it pops BIG.